Showcasing Diversity in Holland’s Festivals with Linda Hart of the Holland, Michigan CVB

We love our festivals, we love our parades.

And we also recognize that we today, while we were founded by the Dutch,

we are very culturally diverse today.

And so we like to celebrate, those other cultures throughout the year.

We have a Juneteenth Festival.

We have a Pride festival.

We have a fiesta for our Latino population.

We have a Celtic festival.

Then in the fall we have an international festival, just so that we wanna

make sure that we round it all up.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Ordinary

People, Extraordinary Things.

I'm your host, Cliff DuVernois.

We are continuing our series into the great city of Holland, Michigan.

Now, when we think about Holland, we have this mental image of tulips.

There's the big windmill.

But Holland is so much more than just that.

There are so many festivals, activities and sites that Holland has

to offer throughout the entire year.

Holland is also connected to a major cultural icon, which I

definitely did not know about.

To guide us on our exploration of Holland.

I'm sitting today with Linda Hart, the executive director of the

Holland Convention and Visitors Bureau, or the Holland CVB.

Linda, how are you?

I'm doing great.

How are you?

I'm doing awesome.

Thank you for asking.

Why don't you share with us a little bit about where you're

from, where you grew up.

Sure.

So I grew up in Columbus, Ohio.

so for all, everybody in

Michigan, I am a Buckeye, so don't boo his me.

I actually

keep the Bohi out

Linda Hart, Holland CVB: I appreciate that.

Actually, I came to Michigan.

There's a dude ranch about an hour north of here called the

Double J Ranch in Golf Resort.

I've never heard of this.

Yes.

it was an adult ranch that started in the thirties and, as all of these

adults, they got married, they had kids, and then they ended up opening,

what they called the Back 40.

And so it became a family, ranch and golf resort, uh, little town called Rothbury,

just again, about an hour north of here.

Well, anyway, went on vacation up there and I rode a horse.

And I was in the banking industry in Columbus and I rode a horse and I thought,

this is what I wanna do with my life.

And I went back to Columbus and I quit my job.

And I found a job mucking stalls and an equestrian facility.

11 years later,

Sweet Moses.

this?

I

I know 11 years later I was the, equestrian director

at the, uh, at the ranch.

Uh, I, I'll tell you, one of the best jobs I've ever.

Wow.

Let's, so that, I'll admit I've never heard that before.

That's really great.

Going from banking to mucking stalls.

Right?

Well, exactly right.

Six figures to, you know, $3 and 15 cents, which was probably what

the minimum wage was at that point.

Yeah.

Your.

and so I met my husband up there and so he was, um, he

was a Hope graduate uh here in Holland.

And so we relocated to Holland and that's how I ended up working

here at the Visitors Bureau.

So was that the first job you took when you came to the area?

Actually, no.

My husband and I bought into a restaurant called Boatworks Waterfront Restaurant.

Ah.

Ah.

He in food and beverage.

So we bought half the restaurant, the operations side of it.

we did that for six years.

I had a really good appreciation of how hard it is to work in food and beverage.

Sweet Moses.

Yes,

Absolutely right.

And after six years I was like, I can't do this anymore.

I mean, you, You, appreciate it, but it is super, super hard work.

Yes.

Um,

and so then I did a very, very brief stint in real estate.

So no judging, very, very brief

I think everybody's done a stint in real estate,

estate.

And I, um, I was just looking for some, additional work and the visitors

bureau offered me some part-time work.

And three months later I was, I was full-time there.

And so I did community outreach for nine years, no, actually, no, I'm so sorry.

Six years.

And then the pandemic hit.

Uh, The previous executive director retired.

And um, so I stepped into the role as interim.

So just for our audience, Tell us a little bit about what the

Convention and Visitors Bureau does.

Sure.

So the CVB or the Convention and Visitors Bureau, we are mandated

under a Michigan Public Act.

It's actually Public Act Number 59, so it falls under the M E D C, which

is the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, and which allows us

as a CVB to collect an assessment through all of our lodging properties.

So any, any hotel or motel that has at least 10 rooms, transient

rooms collects 5% for us it's 5%.

And then passes that on to us.

We use those dollars to market Holland as a destination.

And what I'd like to do is kind of talk to you a little bit

about just the city of Holland in general.

Maybe a little bit about the history and the drive towards tourism.

Sure.

you know, Holland as a destination.

That's our role is to market Holland as a destination.

And we're very unique because we're named Holland.

We were founded by the Dutch.

There's a lot of brand equity there.

A lot of brand equity and you know,

and we're fortunate because a lot of communities don't have that.

We really don't have that.

So we are very, very fortunate.

A minister by the name of, Van Raalte.

He was ex-communicated from the state church in the Netherlands.

So immigrated to the United States.

Landed in West Michigan.

They were actually on their way to Wisconsin, landed in West Michigan.

Thought the area looked very much like it did in the Netherlands

Yes.

Yes.

Was wooded.

There was water and they decided to settle here.

And ever since then, as the story goes, Then that's where we still are today.

Um, Hope College was founded by, Van Raalte, was used to be called Pioneer

that was, it was in a, you know, when, when Van Raalte came here, he had

three initiatives to educate children, build a community of faith, and build

a prosperous business community.

And I'd say he did pretty well.

I think so.

I'd have to agree with that assessment.

Yeah.

You know, and, and Holland's history.

Yes.

Holland burned on that same Sunday in October.

80% of Holland was burned in two hours.

That's spooky.

That's

true.

Yeah.

Right.

Um, and there were three other fires in the region.

Peshtigo, Wisconsin is the, um, that is the, if you ask Alexa, or if you ask

your smart speaker to say, what is the greatest American, fire in history, she's

gonna say it's in Peshtigo, Wisconsin.

2,500 people perished over a million acres were charred.

Wow.

Manistee, Michigan burned on the same

day in addition to Holland.

So, you know, that's kind of part of our, that's, that's part of our history.

But what's really cool is that our museum, they do historical walking

tours and one of the walking tours that they do is a path of the fire.

This building burned, this building survived.

This is what happened.

This is what happened.

And if you go into the museum, there's a lot of, furniture artifacts that the

Dutch, they buried them in the sand in order cuz the fire was moving so quickly.

So I mean that's kind of, you know, it, it's those kinds of

events and stories that our office gets to share with visitors.

Cuz they'll come into our office and they'll be like, what is there to do?

It's like, what are you interested?

You wanna go to the beach?

You wanna learn something Dutch?

You wanna learn history, you wanna go shopping, you wanna go dining?

So it's, so that's kind of everything that our community has.

We grasp that so that we can turn around and share those

stories when people come in.

So as somebody who is fanatical about stories, I have to

give you credit cuz a lot of the times when I'm out there talking with people,

they only wanna focus on the good.

sure.

Right.

The only one focus on, oh, everybody's happy and all the smiles.

So the fact that you're actually making it a point to include the fact.

Yeah, Holland burned.

Mm-hmm.

You know, and that, and just the, the fact that I'm trying to fathom these

people saying, Quick, bury the furniture in sand so it doesn't, you know, rather

than throw it on like a, the back of a carriage and try to drive it out with

horses, maybe they couldn't do that.

Right.

Well, you know, It's interesting that you say that because we, our office are

docents for the cruise ship industry.

We have cruise ships

that that's right.

Do

Great Lakes.

Uh, they used to dock in Holland.

At this point in time they don't.

We're hoping to get them back, but.

So we pick up the passengers cuz they dock in Muskegon and then we bring them down.

And, you know, as a, as a tourist office, it's always, we can always

talk about wooden shoes and windmills,

You know, Right.

the

Dutch part of it.

But a lot of, a lot of folks that when they come in, they wanna know.

Why our community is as good as it is, wh what services do we have?

How do we treat the homeless?

How do we treat the mentally ill?

How, what do we do with, how is, how is our energies, preserved?

We have an anaerobic digester, you know, I mean, If you ever come into our town and

you see that, big, giant ball over there.

People are like, what is that?

That's the kind of information that you, we also wanna be able to share because at

the end of the day, Cliff, you might say, I wanna relocate to Holland, Michigan.

I'm thinking about it

because of what this community has to offer.

So it's kind of fun.

Oh, it definitely is.

It definitely is.

And one of the things that comes to mind, of course, with this is, and I

talked a little bit about this with, Matt Helmus is with the community

growing and everything that's going on here, a little bit about the

sustainability, of getting, can you, can you talk to us a little bit about that?

I can talk to a little bit about it.

You know, we.

We are always as a re, I mean, I'm a citizen, I'm a resident here.

And so we took advantage of our board of public works to be able to come into our

own home and give us an assessment on how, how energy efficient our home is.

And so, you know, that that's just one example that the city

partnering with our Board of Public Works has programs in place to help

citizens become more sustainable.

We talked about snow melt.

We talked about, I don't know if you talked about snow melt, but

we talk about snow melt and,

and what an

main

really, and you know, it's a closed loop system before

the water used to pour into Lake Macatawa.

It's a closed loop system.

We talked about the anaerobic digester.

What's doing that

Hope College and the sustainability efforts that they have.

We even talk about, our tree canopy and inventorying our historic, our

heritage trees, you know, old, old trees, and how to preserve those both

on our public and in our private spaces.

And with that, we're gonna take a quick

break to thank our sponsors.

When we come back, we're going to explore more of these amazing

festivals that are going on.

A little something for everyone.

We're also gonna learn more about how Holland is connected to a major cultural

and American icon, and what they are doing to celebrate that connection.

We will see you after the break.

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Okay.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Ordinary People, Extraordinary Things.

I'm your host, Cliff DuVernois.

Today we are continuing to explore one of the top destinations in

the great state of Michigan.

That would be Holland helping us with that monumental task.

Is Linda Hart, the executive director of the Holland cvb.

Now, before the break, we spent a little bit of time talking about Holland's

history, both the good and the bad, and we hinted at one of Holland's biggest

festivals that would be Tulip Time.

And I do want to talk a bit more about that, but I also know

that Holland has so much more.

To offer besides Tulip time.

So Linda, if you would please talk to us a little bit more about Tulip

time, and that's then let's move on to some of the other great festivals

and events that Holland has to offer.

Sure.

so you probably heard the story of Tulip Time with Lida Rodgers and you

know, we've been, we will celebrate 93 years of the festival this year.

5 million tulips.

You know, It's interesting because we're known as the city of Tulips, right?

People associate Holland, Michigan with tulips.

Oh, I've heard of Michigan.

They have a big tulip festival.

Well, little known fact is that before we were known for the City of Tulips,

we were known as the City of Churches.

Oh, wow.

We had pre Tulip Time, 170 churches representing

49 denominations, 170 churches.

We're not a very large community.

I mean, city of Holland, 35, 30 4,000 residents.

Greater Holland area 111, 112,000.

So 170 churches.

And I mean, that's today.

When, think about today, you know, not back in, the turn of the century.

The 19 hundreds.

today we have I think 140 churches representing

that's still a good number

Only two Catholic churches that we have in

our community, which is interesting.

But celebrating the festival.

We love our festivals, we love our parades.

And we also recognize that we today, while we were founded by the Dutch,

we are very culturally diverse today.

And so we like to celebrate, those other cultures throughout the year.

We have a Juneteenth Festival.

We have a Pride festival.

We have a fiesta for our Latino population.

We have a Celtic festival.

Just to take a step back before, before we hit the

record button, you were saying that the Latino population, the 30%,

30% of our population is Latino.

It's the largest growing population that we have, in our community.

So it's very, very cool, and, well, I won't say this is a, we have

a very large, senior population.

So our heated streets and sidewalks, we ha we get a lot of snowbirds.

We will have dual residences and because downtown is so walkable and if you ever

walk downtown, you will see a lot of housing that's dedicated to 55 and over.

Which just, you know, which makes it ums.

I, guess

you're, you can, you can almost meet anybody downtown really at

the end, at any given day because of how culturally diverse we are.

So, Yes, so Celtic Festival and then in the fall we have an international

festival, just so that we wanna make sure that we round it all up.

So let's go back and let's, let's talk a little bit about

some of these festivals you mentioned before about a Celtic festival.

Yeah.

that was a new festival that we started last year, or, well, that

the Celtic of the group of guys, they just, um, they're like, Nope,

we need to have our own festival.

And, they got Guinness as a sponsor.

Nice.

their

They're only sponsor.

They have what's called a Kaylee the night before on a Friday night.

So it's a big dance party.

Well, you know, It's, uh, live music and, over 21 type of activity.

Certainly.

And then, uh, the next day are all Highland games.

So if you can think of a Highland game, they're doing it.

So I mean, if you think, okay, let me ask you a Question, What would

you think of as a Highland game?

Uh,

Linda Hart, Holland CVB: Throwing the big stumps.

Yes.

In the big rock.

Yeah.

Feats of strength.

Strength, right?

Yes.

this is what guys do, and they get clans, from all over the region, who

will come to Holland and participate.

And then they've got all the dancers, the clogs, and then the vendors.

It's really an immersive experience to, to participate in these kind

of festivals because you're, you're really seeing how, it's, you know,

education, it's entertainment, and it's, it's more of awareness.

and this is the culture of that particular community, which is kind of cool.

So when you're talking about the Celtic Irish

Festival, when does that take place?

So the Celtic Irish festival is in June.

It's June 23 and 24th this year.

So it's always Friday, Saturday,

but it is in June.

It is in June.

Okay.

It is in as well as our Pride Festival and our Juneteenth Festival.

Fiesta is in July, and then the international festival is in October.

So we kind of round out, you know, all these festivals from May through October

with a nice international one.

what's a Fiesta festival like?

it's, well, oh gosh, the fiesta is, it's kind of migrated

over, the course of the last decade or so.

Also used to include a film festival, like an independent Latino film festival.

But a lot of dancing, a lot of live music.

f.

A lot of Mexican good mexican food,

lot

Oh my God, I miss good Mexican

food.

They're gonna throw in a car show because

you can't have a, you know, you can't really have a fiesta unless you're

gonna have a really souped up car

Yes.

Linda Hart, Holland CVB: Which Which is also very cool.

And that's, That f that festival takes place in downtown as well.

So we are anchored on the west end of downtown by our Holland

Civic Center, uh, which is a great facility, 55,000 square feet.

So some of the festival components are inside and the stage, in the atrium, which

is the opening area, and then also outside with some of the car show components.

So it's, I'll tell you, the food alone is reason to go.

Yes, and I would agree with that.

Like I said, I've been missing good Mexican food.

Tell us about the International festival.

What's that like?

So the International Festival is a festival

put on by, the city of Holland.

So that is out of all the festivals that is city owns that festival.

And that, again, is at the, is at the Civic Center, but

it's celebrating all cultures.

So you've got, you've got the Latino, you've got the, caucasian.

You have the, American Black, you have the African, you know, You have the Celtic.

You have the Irish.

So it's, and, and that festival and a lot of components with that are a lot

of presentations and demonstrations and dancing on the stage in addition to more

food, because that's all we like to do.

Apparently Hollanders love to eat because there's just, and, and so you're getting

a chance to taste what, what comes out of all these different regions of the world,

but let live here in Holland, Michigan.

There's a little, there's a passport that kids can do and they can

Oh, that's cute.

the different countries and experience it.

that's kind of fun.

I mean, it's just, again, it's just showing the community pride,

uh, for, for everybody here and celebrating that and bringing awareness

to, everybody in our community.

I'm liking this theme of the fact that, you

celebrate and you say we're Dutch.

But you're also coming out and saying, but you know what, we're also Latino.

We are also Celtic we are also

Correct.

That's exactly right.

Which is super important for us.

Because again, when that visitor comes in and thinks that we're all wearing Dutch

costumes or Dutch attire and wearing clump and wooden shoes, and our downtown

should look like, the Netherlands does.

That's a good founding for us, but we're really who we are today.

You know, and, and

Interesting fact is that when the.

When the Dutch settled it, they weren't really necessarily

interested in all the architecture looking like that stepping gable,

right?

You

see,

developers and builders started putting a nod to that style.

So some of our newer buildings that you see downtown, the Macatawa Bank

or the Courtyard by Marriott, you see that stepping Gable style, which

just are just nods to the Dutch heritage throughout our community.

And of course, Hope College.

I was pleasantly surprised in some of my research

here, and you actually mentioned it in some correspondence that

you and I had the Wizard of Oz exhibit that caught my attention.

Talk to us about

Well, I would never realize in a million years that

there are so many folks, probably my age and probably your age, that have very,

very fond memories of The Wizard of Oz.

Indeed.

So Frank Baum.

He's the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

He vacationed here in Holland on Lake Michigan.

Lake Macatawa, uh, which is a more of a private, cottage

area just west of downtown.

So still part of the greater Holland area.

And, he had a cottage, it was called The Sign of the Goose.

So, um, His very first selling, successful book, he used the proceeds

and built a house, built a well, built a cottage on Lake Michigan,

called the Sign of the Goose.

And it is said by his great-great grandson that while vacationing here during the

summer months, a lot of his inspiration came from, just vacationing here.

So there was a lot of yellow brick.

It was called the veneklasen brick, that it's of yellow brick.

That was, you know, was the pavers for the streets and the sidewalks.

And and obviously it was the yellow brick road,

Right, right?

The little girl that lived two doors down.

I believe her name was Dorothy.

You know, and so there's a, there's a picture that, you know, that you,

I mean, you can look at anywhere on, uh, if you just Google it, uh,

a Baum with a little girl, with a little monkey on her shoulder, those,

my goodness.

kind of

Right.

and so, We just wanted to pay homage to them

recognizing that there were ties to Baum and that extremely classic,

classic story, here in Holland.

And we don't claim that he wrote the story here.

We don't claim that he wrote the whole book here because we know that there

was a lot of inspiration in his life of.

Anybody does the research, we're just saying, Hey, a little bit a

part of him and a part of his life.

And his history was here in Holland and we wanted to celebrate it.

So we decided that, it was a collaboration with our office, the

city of Holland, the library, and a organization called Holland in Bloom.

And, to bring seven bronze sculptures, uh, life-size bronze sculptures to Holland.

What the Holland in Bloom piece brought to the project was a book.

It's called A Living Mosaic, uh, which is a book, so it's a 10 foot by 12 foot book.

Think Topiary, but instead of a topiary being alive, right, alive

tree that they, or a shrub that they, they trimmed to make a shape.

right?

This is a steel frame and it's got, growing fabric with a

soil medium in it, and then 6,000 plants are put in this book and then, plants

that grow together like creeping plants.

And, the book is open and it has the image, uh, it's got the yellow brick road.

It says A Wonderful Wizard of Oz and it's got the castle all made outta plants,

front and back, all made outta plants.

So there's two parts of the exhibit, again, kitty corner from each.

Across the street from the, city hall where we are right now in

a park called Centennial Park.

So the book is in Centennial Park.

It's a seasonal book, right?

It's got annuals.

It's got living plants on it.

So it comes back into the city greenhouses.

At the end of the season, all the plants come out, new plants are put

in the book grows again and comes out.

The statues, because the, the, the statues are located at the library, which again,

kitty corner along Yellow Brick Road.

But because the project was so successful and so popular, we did

some fundraising for the project.

Yes.

Uh, the,

we wanted to, we did some fundraising.

Thought we will sell engraved bricks.

Okay, let's sell engraved bricks.

We were hoping that maybe we could, fundraise maybe $20,000

if we were lucky, maybe $50,000.

I mean, This is a big, big project as far as financial cost to it.

We raised a little under of a quarter of a million dollars.

Oh, beautiful.

I love that.

I Love, that.

Oh,

And it, the, the amount of support and

love that people had for this story and wanted to be a piece of it.

I mean, There were marriage proposals, um, you know, in

oh, that's cute in

these books.

There were sa I mean, it was, it was amazing.

And then people were like, well, can I buy a statue?

I'm like, like, the really expensive, you know, we had, we ended up putting benches

all throughout the exhibit you know, that people ended up sponsoring and funding.

And so, I mean, it was, it was an amazing project.

And if any, if there's when you come to Holland in the summer, if you loved

that story or if you were scared of the monkeys or you cried when, Dorothy

was kidnapped by the witch, if, if there's any emotion that stirs in

that, you've gotta see this exhibit.

And what's super, super cool about this is that this story is now lending itself

for everybody like us who love the story to tell our grandkids that story.

So the, the story is getting a resurgence of popularity because of

this exhibit that happened to go in.

I bet you too, that from you know, from a, a generational

standpoint, being able to share this movie, this classic, with the younger

generation, be able to say, oh, by the way, the author, he actually lived here.

That's exactly the inspiration is here.

That's wonderful.

Yes.

I mean, it is, it's, it's a cool story.

It really is.

I know.

That's why I wanted to explore it.

Linda, this is, this is one of those interviews.

I could sit here all day and just pepper you with questions and I'm loving it.

So this just means that we're gonna have to come back.

For our audience, if anybody wants to connect with what's going on

in Holland, realizing that there's more than just the Tulip Festival.

There's all these other festivals going on, especially if you

wanna get your Celtic on.

Uh, What would be the best way for em to do that?

Certainly visit our website@holland.org.

Uh, you can also follow us on Facebook or Instagram or even

Pinterest at Discover Holland.

Wonderful.

Linda, thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule today to talk to us.

We really appreciate it.

Okay, thank you.

And for our audience, you can go to total michigan.com,

click on Linda's interview and see all the links that she mentioned above.

While you're there, make sure to sign up for our free email newsletter.

Also take some time to listen to the other two interviews that we

have done from Holland, Michigan.

That would be with Mayor Nathan Bocks.

As well as Matt Helmus, who is the director of the Windmill Island Gardens.

We'll see you again next week with another great story.